


Another Memory

by hibiren



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Coffee, Emotional, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotions, Inspired by Music, Kissing, Late Night Conversations, Laughter, M/M, One Shot, Reno (Compilation of FFVII)-centric, Sad and Sweet, Short, Songfic, not sure how to tag this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:42:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23689387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hibiren/pseuds/hibiren
Summary: Reno asks Rude a question that has been on his mind for a while."You think people will remember me, when I'm gone?"
Relationships: Reno/Rude (Compilation of FFVII)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 53





	Another Memory

**Author's Note:**

> When I heard the news this morning that Keiji Fujiwara had passed away, I was in shock. I didn't know what to think, to do, other than cry. His vocal work meant a lot to me, it resonated with me - especially his work as Reno, and as Ardyn. I'm still in shock. I just... had to write something out, I'm not sure still how to work through it. Thinking about Reno, especially, got me through a lot of hard times when I was growing up. It hurts to know such talent is now no longer with us.
> 
> This is how I'm working through it, right now. I know it's short, but I wanted to write a small something. I also don't usually write in present tense so I apologize for that but I just felt the urge to write it like this, for this particular piece.
> 
> Written while listening to: [My Chemical Romance's "The Only Hope For Me Is You"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSye1-TBeqg)

“Hey, partner.”

“Hm?”

A quiet, smoke-laced sigh follows. Reno crushes his cigarette against the railing and flicks it away, watching as it disappears and is swallowed up into the darkness of the ground below the apartment. For a moment, he sees himself falling, too. He shakes the thought out of his head.

“You think people will remember me, when I’m gone?”

Rude doesn’t say anything, at first. He uncrosses his arms, adjusts his sunglasses. It’s dark out, the sun set hours ago; but he still wears them, because he needs them, like Reno needs cigarettes when he’s stressed out like this. Small comforts in a world gasping its dying breaths.

This isn’t the first time Reno’s brought this up. And it probably won’t be the last.

“We’re supposed to be invisible,” Reno continues, and then everything falls out of him. He can’t stop. He swipes a hand through his hair out of habit, does it almost angrily, and little red strands trail away with his fingers and vanish with the faint evening breeze. Like his red string of fate had been severed, left to dissolve as meaningless thread. Invisible against all the blood on his hands. “Aren’t we? Who’s gonna remember me, at the end of it all? Remember you, us? We’re just… two guys doing our best to stay alive. Right? We’ve done so much shit, man, but… I dunno. I dunno, anymore. I… I just… just…”

And then Rude steps up behind him, gloved fingertips over Reno’s. The redhead’s hands are cold. Trembling. He’s got the railing in a death grip. He’s _scared_ but refuses to admit it.

“I’ll remember you,” Rude says simply, giving Reno’s hand a squeeze. It’s about all the reassurance he can offer in the moment. He’s never really good with words, when it comes to things like this. He’s just a listener. But for Reno, he’ll be anything the man needs. Because he loves him.

“Thanks, man,” comes the reply. Soft, broken. Now his shoulders are shaking, too. Rude squeezes the hand beneath his.

After a long pause, Rude speaks again. “I don’t think anyone could forget you. I sure as hell won’t. Can’t.”

“Oh… oh, yeah?” Reno says, forcing a humorless laugh. He moves his other hand to place it on top of Rude’s. The leather of the other man’s gloves is warm, soft, a comfort. A sharp contrast to the calloused skin Reno knows is beneath the material. But comforting nonetheless. “You think so?”

Reno’s rhetorical question finds its answer when Rude pulls him away from the railing and into a kiss. Pushes his back to the wall and wraps his arm around Reno’s slender waist as they move. Pulls him close. Every movement is slow, gentle. And then the kiss deepens. It’s almost too much. Suffocating. It’s unlike him. It’s overpowering. Rude tastes smoke and ash in his mouth, swallows up Reno’s anxious words and drinks them into himself before they can slip past his tongue. To Rude, it tastes like home. To Reno, it tastes like redemption. Absolution. Release. It’s what he needs.

And Reno just lets it happen. Rude is better with actions, than words. He always has been. And what he’s doing speaks all Reno needs to hear. It’s like Rude is guiding him. He isn’t a man to take charge often, but when he does, it’s because Reno needs it. Reno’s hands find their way up to Rude’s shoulders and grip at his shirt. And for the first time that night, he forgets about what’s bothering him. Rude just takes over, commands control of his senses. The hand around Reno’s waist squeezes with gentle urgency, and by the time they part for breath, Reno can barely get his words out.

“You promise, you’ll remember me? If… if something happens.” His voice is unsteady. Unsure.

Rude kisses him again, frowns when the chapped skin at Reno’s lips splits against his tongue. He frowns deeper after he tastes blood. Blood, smoke, the salt of Reno’s tears. “Nothing’s gonna happen, not if I can help it.” Rude says. He knows better, than to say things he knows he can’t prove. But he can’t stop himself. “I’ve got you, partner.”

“I know,” Reno replies, burying his head against Rude’s shoulder. His cologne from that morning is still lingering in the fabric of his shirt, and it fills Reno’s lungs. He wishes he could just melt into it. To forget about himself for a while. “...I know,” he says again, almost like he doesn’t believe it. “Yeah. I know.”

“Good,” Rude says, and slowly raises a hand to Reno’s cheek. He leans into the touch, but doesn’t say anything. “...Reno?”

“Yeah?”

“You want some coffee? It’s cold out here.”

“Sure.”

They go back inside, close the door behind them.

The coffee is bitter. Hardly satisfying. They’d run out of sugar a few days ago, but neither felt like making a trip to the store just for that. Reno had taken to pocketing sugar packets any place he could find them when they went out. It was silly. Both of them could at least afford a bag of sugar. But there had been something in the way Reno slipped the packets into his pocket without a second glance that made Rude realize there’s more on Reno’s mind than he wanted to say. Old habits.

“This coffee sucks,” Reno says, breaking the silence. Rude nods. “Tastes like shit.”

“Like _shit,”_ Rude says back after taking a sip and making a disgusted face, coughing to hide the laugh that wells up in his chest. It’s awful stuff. Cheap grounds. But it was all they had.

And then Reno is laughing uncontrollably, unable to hold it back, hugging his sides as he practically drops to the floor. The sound of his laughter echoes through the kitchen. Rude, too, finds himself chuckling as he sits down on the floor against the cabinets and watches his partner rolling around, howling with hysterical laughter until he’s crying.

When Reno finally recovers, he’s breaking into intermittent bursts of struggling cackles, and he can’t breathe. Rude’s hand strokes across his partner’s back, and then stops to rest his hand against Reno’s head.

“Thanks, man. I needed that,” Reno says, speaking to the floor. He’s still trying to breathe like normal, and he wipes the tears from his eyes with the back of his palm. “Don’t know what hit me, but… I feel better now.”

Rude pulls Reno into his lap, and holds him. He still smells like smoke, but now he smells like smoke and cheap coffee. He couldn’t ask for anything more, in that moment, and his hand finds its way around the back of Reno’s neck to guide him into another kiss. He’s still better at showing than speaking. So he shows Reno everything that’s on his mind, all the words he wants to say as their mouths meet, and they stay like that until the sun rises, kissing until they fall asleep on the kitchen floor. It’s perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading <3
> 
> The lyrics from the moodsong that had me thinking the most:  
>  _If that's the best that I could be?  
>  Then I'd be another memory  
> Can I be the only hope for you?  
> Because you're the only hope for me  
> And if we can't find where we belong  
> We'll have to make it on our own  
> Face all the pain and take it on  
> Because the only hope for me is you alone_


End file.
